KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim believes that now is the best time for the government to implement targetted fuel subsidies to reduce the burden of national subsidy expenditure.

Anwar said currently, the government was focused on implementing targetted diesel subsidies before extending them to several other petroleum products. 

He assured that all steps to cut fuel subsidies in the future would not "punish" the poor.

"Now we are focusing on diesel because there has been too much misuse, resulting in loss of billions (of ringgit). This is the time, and we are fully prepared.

"We will continue to implement this reform, cutting subsidies without harming the poor," he said in an interview with Bloomberg at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha yesterday.

Through this rationalisation measure, Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, said the government could save billions of ringgit from wasted and misused national subsidy funds by irresponsible parties.

He added that he also focused on combatting corruption, as the funds saved from such inefficiencies could be redirected to programmes to assist the people.

Previously, Economic Minister Rafizi Ramli was reported to have said that the government is expected to implement the targetted RON95 subsidy programme this year to optimise its resources for those in greatest need.

This will be implemented after diesel, where pilot projects to test the MySubsidi Diesel System and the Fleet Card system for oil companies began on Feb 1.

Starting March 7, the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry has agreed to expand pilot projects under the Subsidised Diesel Control System (SKDS) 2.0 to nine types of commercial vehicles in the goods transportation sector starting tomorrow.

These vehicles include general cargo trucks, bottle beverage trucks, ice trucks, Luton trucks, tank trucks, water tank trucks, panel vans, and window vans. 

SKDS 1.0 has been implemented since 2013 and it involves 10 types of public vehicles.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/05/1050999/pm-targetted-subsidies-will-not-punish-poor